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The Labour Government from 1997 to 2010 did many harmful things to the tax system. Although Gordon Brown when Chancellor of the Exchequer had a stellar reputation with much of the media, I always considered him a poor Chancellor. The reason is that he kept endlessly tinkering with the tax rules by introducing stealth taxes that he hoped people would not notice, but which had harmful side effects.
However, blame for possibly the worst such stealth tax must be shared between Gordon Brown as Prime Minister and the late Alistair Darling who was the Chancellor of the Exchequer who announced the change in March 2010, to take effect from the tax year 2010-2011. I don’t know whose idea it was!
That change was the introduction of an effective 60% tax rate on a band of taxable income over £100,000. That is the effect of withdrawing personal allowances from higher earners.
The Figures
Below are the official UK income tax rates for 2025-2026:
| Band | Taxable Income | Tax Rate |
| Personal allowance | Up to £12,570 | 0% |
| Basic rate | £12,571 to £50,270 | 20% |
| Higher rate | £50,271 to £125,140 | 40% |
| Additional rate | over £125,140 | 45% |
However, as the HMRC website states: Your personal allowance goes down by £1 for every £2 that your adjusted net income is above £100,000. This means your allowance is zero if your income is £125,140 or above.
Accordingly, the actual UK income tax rates for 2025-2026 are:
| Band | Taxable Income | Tax Rate |
| Personal allowance | Up to £12,570 | 0% |
| Basic rate | £12,571 to £50,270 | 20% |
| Higher rate | £50,271 to £100,000 | 40% |
| Personal allowance withdrawal band | £100,001 to £125,140 | 60% |
| Additional rate | over £125,141 | 45% |
The 60% rate arises because each £1 of extra income means 40p tax directly, and another 20p of tax because 50p of your personal allowance has been withdrawn.
What the Consequences Are
If your income is low, or very high (above £125,141) then the withdrawal of your personal allowance doesn’t change your behaviour, even though few people like paying more tax.
While I have always known about the 60% marginal tax rate, I was finally driven to writing about it by a conversation with a close friend whose daughter is an NHS cardiology consultant. Her income is about £100,000. Whenever she is offered the chance to work extra shifts, she turns it down because she doesn’t want to pay tax at 60% on the extra income. She would rather spend the time with her family.
This has the following consequences:
- The NHS cardiology waiting list does not reduce because she does not work those extra shifts.
- The Exchequer loses the tax at 40% that she would have paid if she did the extra work and this stupid 60% rate did not exist.
- The economy loses the benefit of the money that she would have spent from her extra earnings.
I was in a similar situation when I retired with a generous pension. I would have contemplated doing some consulting work if it was taxed at the 40% rate I was used to paying. However, I had no intention of paying tax at 60%. Hence that economic activity did not happen, and the Exchequer lost the tax revenue that it would have received.
What needs to be done?
The withdrawal of personal allowances needs to be cancelled. It will cost the Exchequer some tax revenue, at least in the short term until economic activity increases due to its abolition. The Treasury is best placed to model the effects.
Obviously some taxes will need to rise somewhere else. I am not going to prescribe which taxes, because the general shape of our tax system is a much bigger issue. However, the first step towards a better tax system is to stop doing stupid things.
Mohammed Amin (website www.mohammedamin.com) has been a Liberal Democrats member since October 2019 and is a retired PwC Tax Partner.
